North Korea on Thursday said the deployment of 15 US F-117 Stealth bombers to South Korea was part of preparations for a preemptive nuclear strike on the country. The deployment announced by Washington last week was an unpardonable act, said the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a state organization in charge of Korean affairs. It was Pyongyang's first official reaction to the deployment, which Washington described as "routine training". | Here it is in the official press release: |
Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement on June 1 as regards the introduction of 15 U.S. infamous F-117 Stealth fighter bombers and 250 maintenance personnel into south Korea. This is an unpardonable provocation tantamount to turning a gun mouth to the reunification fete of the Korean nation celebrating the 5th anniversary of the historical June 15 joint declaration, the spokesman says and goes on:
The United States worked out such extremely dangerous war plan against the north as "CONPLAN 8022-02" in strict secrecy and had it approved by the defense secretary and then deployed Stealth fighter bombers, means of nuclear attack, in south Korea. This proves that the U.S. scheme of preemptive nuclear attack is systematically going over from violent words to operational plan and from the plan to the stage of military action.
All the Koreans in the north, the south and overseas are aboil with reunification fervor with the 5th anniversary of the joint declaration in the offing and they are planning to gather in Pyongyang for a grand festival for national reunification. And they are now hastening its preparations in the last stage.
At this very moment, the United States and the south Korean military authorities saw eye to eye with each other in massively hurling into south Korea Stealth fighter bombers targeted against the north in a bid to spoil the atmosphere of the festival overnight and frustrate the grand reunification festival itself.
We, in the name of the whole nation, bitterly denounce the deployment of Stealth fighter bombers in south Korea by the United States as a treasure shell of the provocation of a war against the north and the worst malicious challenge to the Korean nation and June 15.
The United States would be well advised to promptly take out of south Korea the F-117 Stealth fighter bombers and other military hardware, stop its war moves against the north and withdraw its aggression forces at an early date, pondering over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless war provocation scheme against the north.
The south Korean military authorities should bear responsibility for cooperating with the U.S. in bringing the Stealth planes into south Korea.
The United States and North Korea remain locked in a tense standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. North Korea has boycotted China-hosted nuclear disarmament talks - which also include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia - since June last year.
In February the regime declared it had built nuclear weapons and vowed to increase its nuclear arsenals. |
